Session 16 — Planning Session
The night after Lady Kael’s offer was not spent drinking, arguing, or second-guessing. It was spent counting risks.
Everyone understood the rule quickly: awareness meant death.
Too many mistakes, too much noise, and the **Blacktower would swallow them whole.
Twenty awareness points meant failure.
Edge points were the only way to bend fate back in their favor.
So the Blades of Strangeways went to work.
The Shape of the Plan
Lady Serina Kael released a small purse into Mol Potts’ waiting hands—10 gold pieces, not as payment, but as investment. Supplies, bribes, favors. Whatever it took.
Kael and her butler quietly confirmed something unsettling:
they had access to the execution schedule.
That alone suggested the Black Tower was less isolated than it pretended to be.
The group identified a pressure point almost immediately:
Ezra Mandeville — clerk, bookkeeper, former guard.
A man who knew numbers, routes, names… and whose greatest loyalty was to coin.
Threads Pulled, One by One
Zel Cunningham — The Numbers Game
Zel volunteered to meet Ezra alone.
She found him where men like him could be softened: over pastries and polite conversation. She paid. She listened. She talked numbers.
Ezra talked freely once he realized she understood ledgers.
- He reported to the top of the organization
- He maintained an office at the King’s court, but traveled to the Black Tower several days a week
- The number of “processed” individuals had skyrocketed
- At the end of each week, credits became debits—names vanished from the books
- The High Seeker maintained an excellent relationship with the King
- Ezra had checked the ledgers carefully: Valen was not being bribed
What had changed was staffing. Guards known for gambling and dice games had vanished—replaced by newly hired ones.
Zel left with answers… and deeper questions.
She later confirmed something critical to Torvold Alric:
Madam Doren was still alive.
And she was being held in the processing cells.
Mol Potts — Logistics and Old Bones
Mol worked the city’s underbelly the way only he could—through promises of healing and favors owed.
He failed to extract useful intelligence about the interior of the Black Tower.
But he succeeded where it mattered:
- He secured a boat, quiet and reliable
- He found a rower who would stay loyal
That alone earned the party their first edge point.
Later, Mol dug deeper—into history rather than people.
Old records. Old layouts.
He uncovered outdated schematics of the Black Tower, remnants of earlier designs before renovations and secrecy layered over it.
Another edge point gained.
Leda Gebhart — Faces and Fabric
Leda moved through society instead of shadows.
She spoke with Calen Veylin, carefully steering conversation toward routine rather than politics.
She learned:
- His father was almost always home by six in the evening
- The Captain of the Guard, Sigar, was scarred, disciplined… and unexpectedly fond of romantic fantasy novels
That last detail was filed away carefully.
Later, Leda went to the docks—not to ships, but to laundry houses.
Places where uniforms passed through hands without questions.
She found the right people.
Guard uniforms, tailored to fit the Blades, could be arranged.
Another edge point earned.
Corwin Thorne — Paper and Powder
Corwin did what Corwin did best.
He forged documents—clean enough to survive a glance, dirty enough to belong.
Prison access forms. Administrative approvals.
He also tracked down something less visible:
a powder capable of temporarily incapacitating people without killing them.
Not loud. Not dramatic. Useful.
Torvold Alric — Ghost Stories and Steel
Torvold chased ghosts.
He questioned old Southern Seas contacts, probing for anyone now stationed at the Black Tower. He came up empty.
He turned to rumor instead.
Legends of a shadow dragon beneath the tower—ancient, terrible, absolutely real if you asked the wrong people.
Research revealed the truth: no dragon.
Torvold, unconvinced, decided there were three dragons anyway.
When Zel spotted him buying chocolate croissants, he explained—completely seriously—that they were for the dragon.
Zel did not argue.
The Shape of the Enemy
By nightfall, the picture was clearer—and worse.
- The Black Tower was processing people at an unprecedented rate
- Names were being erased, not transferred
- The High Seeker’s power extended cleanly into the King’s court
- Madam Doren was alive, but time was against her
The party regrouped, maps and notes spread out, voices low.
Zel stopped by Whispers and Tomes, gathering distractions for later—classified pamphlets and lurid titles:
- The Wind Warrior Unleashed — a man framed by storm
- Chains of the Moonlit Pact — a woman bound in silk and water
Nothing vital. But sometimes noise was as important as silence.
Where Things Stand
-
Edge Points Gained:
- Boat & loyal rower
- Old Black Tower layouts
- Guard uniforms
-
Targets Identified:
- Ezra Mandeville (leveraged, not loyal)
- Processing cells (Madam Doren’s location)
-
Unknowns:
- What happens after “processing”
- Why executions are accelerating
- How deep the High Seeker’s reach truly goes
The plan was not finished.
But it was no longer vague.
And for the first time since the invitation was extended, the Black Tower looked less like a monolith—and more like a structure with cracks.